Xi'an Coy Manh (Earth-616)
; formerly , Sentinel Squad O*N*E*, , , , , , | Relatives = General Nguyen Ngoc Coy (uncle, deceased); Unnamed parents (deceased); Tran Coy Manh (twin brother, deceased); Leong Coy Manh (brother); Nga Coy Manh (sister); Da'o Coy Manh (half-sister, deceased) | Universe = Earth-616 | BaseOfOperations = Krakoa, Pacific Ocean; formerly Harry's Hideaway, Salem Center, North Salem, Westchester County, New York; New Charles Xavier School, Alberta, Canada; Utopia, San Francisco Bay, California; Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York; Graymalkin Industries, Marin Highlands, San Francisco, California; Vietnam; Madripoor; Cairo, Egypt; Massachusetts Academy, Snow Valley, Massachusetts | Gender = Female | Height = 5'4" | Weight = 119 lbs | Eyes = Brown | Hair = Black | UnusualFeatures = Missing left leg (uses a prosthetic); formerly morbidly obese | Citizenship = Vietnamese, Krakoan | MaritalStatus = Single | Occupation = Adventurer; former businesswoman, teacher, and student | Education = High School Graduate | Origin = Mutant | PlaceOfBirth = Central highlands of Vietnam | Creators = Chris Claremont; Frank Miller | First = Marvel Team-Up Vol 1 100 | Quotation = I am... I am someone I don't recognize anymore. I don't know what's real and what's in my head. This isn't the first time I've lost myself... but it was so sudden. One second I was with my team, but my guard was down. And something wriggled inside my head. Something -- someone stole my life. | Speaker = Karma | QuoteSource = Astonishing X-Men Vol 3 52 | HistoryText = Early Years Xi'an Coy Manh is the daughter of a colonel in the Vietnamese army. Xi'an and her twin brother, Tran Coy Manh, were mutants, with the power to take mental possession of the minds of others. While still a child, Xi'an saw an enemy soldier threaten Tran. Not realizing she had a superhuman power, Xi'an nevertheless, acting on impulsive, took possession of the soldier's mind and stopped him from killing Tran. Tran then successfully attempted the same feat and forced the soldier to kill himself. While Tran took great delight in this use of his new-found power, Xi'an was frightened of her ability. Xi'an kept their powers secret, but Tran told their uncle, Nguyen Ngoc Coy, a general in the Vietnamese army. General Coy later arranged for Xi'an's family to leave Vietnam, which was now entirely under a Communist government, but only Tran was sent abroad. Eventually, the rest of the family left Vietnam on a small, crowded boat. Xi'an's father was murdered by attacking pirates, who assaulted the women; her mother died the day the survivors were rescued by the United States Navy. Xi'an, her younger brother, Leong Coy Manh, and her younger sister, Nga Coy Manh, were sent to the United States to be reunited with her Uncle Nguyen and Tran. General Coy had become a powerful and prosperous criminal in the United States (although he was publicly known as a businessman), and Tran was using his powers in his uncle's employ. When Coy asked Xi'an to use her powers in his service, she refused. Xi'an sought help from a Catholic priest, Father Michael Bowen, whom she had known in Vietnam. With Father Bowen's aid, Xi'an secured employment and an apartment and enrolled her younger siblings in school. At that time, General Coy kidnapped Leong and Nga, in an effort to blackmail Xi'an into working for him. Desperate, Xi'an located Spider-Man, whom she believed to be a criminal from accounts in the New York Daily Bugle, and took possession of his mind, so she could use his powers to rescue the children. While possessed by Xi'an, Spider-Man fought three members of the Fantastic Four, who were present at a party Coy was hosting, unaware that he was a criminal. Xi'an was forced to release Spider-Man's mind without having freed the children, but Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four located Xi'an and Bowen, learned her story, and agreed to help her. Tran used his powers to take control of the Fantastic Four and have them attack Spider-Man. To save Spider-Man, whom she now knew was no criminal, Xi'an was forced to kill her brother by absorbing his life essence into herself. Xi'an was then reunited with Leong and Nga. New Mutants Shortly thereafter, Xi'an, who now called herself Karma when using her powers, was recommended by Reed Richards and accepted the invitation of Professor Charles Xavier to enroll in his school in order to learn to use her mutant powers better. Thus, she became the first leader of the new team of young superhuman mutants he was training, the New Mutants. Although the team was originally created because the Professor was possessed by the Brood Queen egg inside of him for future embryos, they stayed together. Needing to support her two siblings, Professor Xavier also assigned her the position of secretary at the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Xavier and Dani Moonstar (Mirage) were kidnapped by Silver Samurai and Viper, at which time Xi'an agreed to one year’s service to her uncle in exchange for their whereabouts and disappeared in an explosion. Karma was thought to be missing or dead for a brief period, but had fallen under the control of the Shadow King. Shadow King possessed Shan’s body and used his and Karma's own powers to carve a criminal empire. Shadow King indulged his excessive appetites, causing Karma to become incredibly obese. After taking control of the Gladiators, Empath turned Sunspot and Magma over to Shan, where they were forced to battle for entertainment. After learning that their former teammate was in fact alive, the New Mutants decided to rescue her. After tracking Karma to Madripoor, then Cairo, the New Mutants were joined by Storm and all of them were possessed by Karma, save Mirage, Warlock, and Magik. After Mirage was possessed, Magik and Warlock released Karma from the Shadow King and Karma fought a psychic battle, which she won, forcing the Shadow King to flee back to the Astral Plane. Later, Amora the Enchantress kidnapped the New Mutants to Asgard. While attempting to escape, Magik used her teleportation discs but the Enchantress' magics affected the destination and the New Mutants were separated through time and space. Karma found herself stranded in the desert months in the past, where she encountered a young girl, possibly the Norn Queen Karnilla, who she protected. Crossing the unforgiving desert for months, Karma managed to lose the weight she had gained under the influence of the Shadow King, and became quite formidable in the use of her power. After their adventure in Asgard, the New Mutants found themselves under the guidance of a new teacher, Magneto, and Xi'an returned to her position as school secretary. Later, while watching the Wildways, Leong and Nga were captured by Spiral and Mojo, matured into the adults, Template, and mentally controlled by Psylocke into joining a new show, the Bratpack. After a brief battle with the New Mutants, Psylocke was freed from her mind control and freed the others as well. During the massacre of the Morlocks by the Marauders, the New Mutants were charged with aiding the wounded. Later, Shan asked Illyana Rasputin to teleport her to check on her younger brother and sister, only to discover they had disappeared. A bomb rigged to their apartment’s light switch destroyed all possible clues to their whereabouts. At a Hellfire Club event, Xi'an possessed Tessa to desperately search for her siblings in the Hellfire Club's database. Xi'an found no information. After being caught by Sebastian Shaw, the Black King, Xi'an declined helping the New Mutants in their contest against the Hellions to find who sold a forged statue of Selene to a member of the Hellfire Club before sunrise, stating that she had too many things on her mind. While the team was gone, Xi'an left a letter for Dani, co-leader of the New Mutants, stating that she was leaving the team to work for her uncle and search for her siblings. Searching for Siblings Karma left the New Mutants and subsequently embarked on a long search for Leong and Nga. For a time she served General Coy in Madripoor, in the hope that he could locate her brother and sister. While working for her Uncle, Xi'an encountered Patch, the X-Man Wolverine in disguise. Patch was attempting to stop General Coy from overthrowing the current crime lord of Madripoor, Tyger Tiger, and Xi'an even assisted him by taking control of Roughouse and Bloodsport for Patch and Tyger to escape a beating. While attempting to rescue Lindsay McCabe, Tyger Tiger, and Jessica Drew, Xi'an ran into Patch again and assisted in the downfall of her uncle's empire. Patch had General Coy at his mercy, until Prince Baran intervened and, thanks to Lindsay, considered them all honored guests of his. The prince offered that Tyger and General Coy work together to stop a power vacuum and war zone in Madripoor, and Patch convinced Tyger to accept. Next, Patch began his quest to save Karma from her uncle's service, but was sidetracked when he learned that disrupting General Coy's drug activities planted a target on the general's head and Xi'an needed him to help her find her missing brother and sister. Xi'an accompanied Patch to the airport to witness the arrival of Joe Fixit, who Patch smelled right away and recognized as the Hulk. For a time Leong and Nga were the prisoners of Shinobi Shaw, who made them the subjects of genetic experiments. He then turned them over to Karma's longtime foe, the terrorist known as the Viper, and the extra-dimensional being Spiral. Karma and the X-Man Beast eventually joined forces to rescue the two children, but Beast was unable to undo Spiral's genetic tinkering. Karma later found a doctor who was able to undo the damage her siblings had suffered. Adulthood Karma dyed her hair pink had some body piercing done. She met most of her former New Mutants teammates who were now members of X-Force at the Burning Man festival. She was accompanied by two lesbian friends. While studying and working at Chicago University as a librarian, Xi'an crossed paths with Shadowcat and helped her fight the Purity and Sentinel menaces. Shortly after Karma's graduation, Moonstar arrived in an attempt to recruit David Alleyne for the Xavier Institute. Xi'an introduced the two, and headed back to the relative safety of the Institute along with her siblings. It was also at around this time that Karma confirmed her lesbianism to Dani and confessed to an unreciprocated attraction to Kitty Pryde. At the school, Karma briefly reunited with the original New Mutants to battle Donald Pierce. Xi'an had lots of responsibility at the Institute. She was the school's librarian, French teacher, and adviser for students too young to be assigned to a squad. With Northstar believed dead and Wolfsbane leaving the Institute after her affair with a student was exposed, Karma was also supervising their squads (Alpha Squadron and the Paragons). Karma joined the rest of the X-Men in San Francisco at the new headquarters. New Mutants X-Men Squad Magik later returned, stating that she was from shortly in the future and that the world and New Mutants would die without her intervention. Cyclops allowed Cannonball to reorganize the original New Mutants squad. Their first mission was to subdue a recently returned Legion. While attempting to save a young girl that was absorbed into Legion's mind, Xi'an was also absorbed into Legion's mind and battled to protect the young girl, Marci, from all of David's personalities, until Magik arrived and, after Xi'an used her Soulsword and killed one of the personalities, saved Xi'an. After battling their resurrected teammate, Doug Ramsey, and the Hellions, Doug was freed from Eli Bard's control by Warlock wielding Magik's Soulsword and they rejoined their former teammates. After the return of the mutant messiah, Hope Summers, and Cable to Earth-616, Bastion and his members of the Human Council attacked her tirelessly. Cyclops ordered the New Mutants to attack one of Cameron Hodge's Right facilities, where Hodge attacked her and almost killed her before Warlock killed him. She was badly injured, and her left leg had to later be amputated. After Bastion's forces were prevented from carrying out the mutant genocide that he planned, Madison Jefferies used his mutant abilities to create a new bionic leg for Xi'an. After the attack from Bastion, the team took a vacation and Illyana sensed that Pixie had been captured. Illyana sent Warlock to warn the X-Men and the rest of the team battled the Inferno Babies. After being beaten, they were about to be taken to Limbo, until Xi'an showed Face what Project Purgatory had done to him, and he freed Illyana and Xi'an. The two of them, with Pixie, returned to Utopia, where Legion was being held and Illyana plunged her Soulsword into Xi'an's chest and she ended up in Legion's mind. There, Shan released the true David Haller personality and it was revealed that Illyana brought Legion back into the mainstream reality to use against the Elder Gods that the General Ulysses and Project Purgatory were planning to unleash. Shan left the New Mutants to take care of Face, and when Kuurth attacked San Francisco, they were among those who tried to stop him, but even Face's devastating powers were ineffective. Regenesis After the schism in the X-Men between Cyclops and Wolverine, Xi'an chose to go back to Westchester with Wolverine, thinking that the school was the best place for her and Face to be. She became a Junior Staff Member at the school. Utopians Some time following the conflict between the Avengers against the X-Men, after which Utopia was abandoned, Karma formed part of the Utopians, a group of mutants that started inhabiting the ruins of the island. The X-Men were contacted by S.H.I.E.L.D. to investigate the island after a recon team went missing. The X-Men teleported to the island and initially engaged the Utopians. After talking it out and discovering the Utopians wanted nothing but to be safe and undisturbed, the X-Men offered them a place at the New Charles Xavier School, which they gladly accepted. Krakoa Karma joined the mutant nation of Krakoa. Alongside some of her old teammates, and a few new members, the New Mutants were reformed on Krakoa. Realizing how good their life on Krakoa was, the New Mutants decided to go on a space mission to the Shi'ar Empire with the intent of bringing their teammate Cannonball back to Earth to show him life on Krakoa. | Powers = Xi'an is a mutant with telepathic and psionic based powers dealing in possession, mind scanning and limited telepathy. Her powers include: * Telepathy: Xi'an has limited to moderate telepathic and empathic capabilities which were never truly touched upon by Professor Xavier. She's received some training with Emma Frost in that regard but her psychic prowess was nowhere near that of the White Queen's. Like most telepaths, Karma can read an individual's thoughts and feelings, sift through memories, or discharge mental blasts to overwhelm opponents. It's been speculated Karma's possession abilities stem not as a her core mutation but a sub-power of which her other mental abilities take in the background. ** Psychic Possession: This psionic ability allows her to project a mental energy surge that overwhelms her victims' consciousness while placing her mind in command, operating their bodies as if they were an extension of her own, experiencing what the subject's senses perceive. During the possession, her subject's higher brain functions revert to diminished levels, similar to their state in a dreamless sleep, and the subject is left with no memory of the actual possession. When Karma first takes possession of someone, she can only move her subject's body awkwardly until she acclimates herself to her new host. *** Mass Possession: Although Karma can possess multiple subjects simultaneously, her control over her subjects is fragmented as she shifts her attention from one to another. Possibly she will overcome this handicap as her experience in using her powers grows. *** Remote Possession: Xi'an can host individuals over a distance while maintaining her original body, but her control is limited. ** Mind Control: She can control her subject's actions and thought patterns allowing her to alter their perceptions and memories, and command entranced opponents to divulge information. ** Sensory Link: Karma may establish a scrying link either through partial or remote possession and gain the feelings and sensations of the target. While ranged possession means controlling a body in another location and requires her to see through her victim's eyes, she needs greater focus to control them and has sometimes appeared to be in a meditative state. * Psychic Shield: Generates a psychic shield that disrupts incoming psi-signatures, protecting her from all manner of psychic assaults. | Abilities = | Strength = Karma possesses the normal human strength of a woman of her age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise. | Weaknesses = Subordinate Personality: If she remains in possession of a host for too long, she will begin to think and act as her host would, and eventually her own personality would become subordinate to one identical to the host's. | Equipment = | Transportation = X-Men Blackbird; formerly Magik, Warlock. | Weapons = | Notes = * Post-Messiah Complex Karma was believed to be part of the new incarnation of The Brotherhood along with the other Original New Mutants, but this has not been confirmed. | Trivia = * Karma is a known lesbian. Although her sexual orientation had been mentioned before, she was never explicitly shown with another woman until . * Karma's real name "Xi'an Coy Manh" is grammatically wrong in Vietnamese; the name also does not exist nor can be pronounced as "Shi-ahn" in real life. This might have happened due to the writer's lack of knowledge of the Vietnamese language. | Marvel = | Wikipedia = | Links = * Marvel Directory * uncannyxmen.net Spotlight On... Karma * Gay League Profile }} Category:Post-M-Day Mutants (The 198) Category:Homosexual Characters Category:Telepathic Immunity Category:Telepaths Category:Utopians Category:One Leg Category:Possession Category:Cyborgs Category:Xavier Institute Student Category:Jean Grey School faculty Category:Manh Family Category:Significant Threats Category:Mind Control Category:Twins Category:Post-Secret Wars Mutants